Gul RS Youth Championships at Oxford Sailing Club

by Sophie Hartley 7 Sep 2005 08:16 BST 3-4 September 2005

An excellent turnout of 22 boats made the trip to Oxford Sailing club for the youth championships. We were greeted with sun but a lack of wind.

Race 1 started with a lot of the fleet being a bit eager to start with the 1st general recall of the weekend and the black flag coming out. With a very shifty force 1-2 wind, Frances Peters and Claire Lasko shot of the line to make it first to the windward mark followed by Tom and Jess Olden and Rachel Wigmore and Lucy Matthews. With a good mark rounding Peters/Lasko sped off not to be seen again, Wigmore/Matthews had a good down wind run to move to 2nd with the Olden's taking 3rd and Nikki Russell and Ben Lister 4th.

The second race led to some early starters and their second race being over. The rest of the fleet got off to a good start with Peters/Lasko flying off the start line again to lead round the windward mark followed by Wigmore/Matthews and Josh Gebhard and Tom Jeffrey. Wigmore/Matthews managed to steal the lead, with Russell/Lister coming back to take 2nd, Gebhard/Jeffrey taking 3rd and Peters/Lasko slipping to 4th.

Race three and a nice clean start for all the boats, Wigmore/Matthews got off to a great start and led from the windward mark with incredible pace with Andrew Conn and Jake Gebhard following in second. Wigmore/Matthews won the race with Conn/Gebhard having some tricky wind on the last down wind stretch to let Graham Rome and Sophie Hartley in to 2nd and Russell/Lister to 3rd.

After racing David Giles kindly did some video debriefing and shared some of his knowledge. With a disco on Saturday night the over 18 youths did the class proud and drank the bar dry at 9 o'clock forcing them to go out to buy more supplies!

Sunday started sunny but with little wind.

Race 4 kicked off with Jack Norton and Sarah Sharp 1st to the windward mark followed by the Olden's and Gebhard/Jeffrey. With a good down wind leg Conn/Gebhard took the lead with the Olden's still fighting strong in second. Gebhard/Jeffrey managed to make back some places with some good manoeuvring up wind to lead to the windward mark and take the race, with Conn/Gebhard 2nd and Wigmore/Matthews coming through to take 3rd.

With the wind picking up to a nice force 3 for the second race things were going to get interesting, Sam Littlejohn and Emma Clarke powered off to be first to the windward mark followed by Conn/Gebhard and Peters/Lasko. With a comfortable lead Littlejohn/Clarke took the race with Wigmore/Matthews 2nd, Peters/Lasko 3rd.

The final race and some teams went to pack up early due to some premature starting. Wigmore/Matthews led to the windward mark for two laps only to find they were black flagged. So it was race on for the youth cup between Peter's and Gebhard. With some tactical covering by both teams Gebhard/Jeffery just managed to take the race from Peter's/Lasko and with it the youth cup.

Overall Wigmore/Matthews convincingly won the racing and 1st female team but with Lucy Matthews being too old, the youth cup went to Josh Gebhard and Tom Jeffrey, Francis Peter's 1st U16 and Claire Lasko taking 3rd, Sam Littlejohn/Emma Clarke 4th and Nikki Russell/Ben Lister 5th. A special mention to Andy Conn and Jake Gebhard who won the merit prize with the most mixed results from a 2nd and 23rd.

A great weekend and thanks to Oxford sailing club and every one who helped to make it a success.

Overall Results:

Pos	Sail No	Helm	Crew	Prize Age	Club	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Pts
1	812	Rachel Wigmore	Lucy Matthews	99	Itchenor SC	2	1	1	3	2	BFD23	9
2	820	Josh Gebhard	Tom Jeffrey	19	Derwent SC	6	3	9	1	5	1	16
3	476	Frances Peters	Claire Lasko	15	Oxford SC	1	4	6	6	3	2	16
4	858	Sam Littlejohn	Emma Clarke	19	Lancing SC	14	6	4	16	1	3	28
5	528	Nikki Russell	Ben Lister	99	Oxford SC	4	2	3	9	10	BFD23	28
6	714	Tom Olden	Jess Olden	18	Gurnard SC	3	BFD23	7	8	9	6	33
7	1020	Graham Rome	Sophie Hartley	18	Ripon SC	12	17	2	11	6	7	38
8	971	Jack Norton	Nick Reading	14	Oxford SC	7	9	8	5	RET23	11	40
9	709	Nikki Sharp	Sarah Sharp	17	Budworth SC	22	11	17	4	7	4	43
10	779	James Downer	Tommy Kirkpartrick	18	Gurnard SC	10	8	14	14	4	8	44
11	1080	Tom Crompton	Becky Partridge	18	Budworth SC	5	5	12	18	13	BFD23	53
12	920	Emily Rawlandon	Sally Harrison	15	Gurnard SC	17	10	10	12	14	13	59
13	1120	Andrew Conn	Jake Gebhard		Derwent SC	15	BFD23	5	2	15	BFD23	60
14	1030	James Griffith	George Miller	16	Deben YC	21	12	18	17	8	5	60
15	540	Robert Poole	Rachael Davis	18	Deben YC	19	15	13	10	16	10	64
16	734	Mitch Webb	Clare Stubbs	20	Downs SC	16	7	16	15	12	BFD23	66
17	620	Natashia Lister	James Carter	17	ISDC/Ripon SC	9	19	15	19	18	9	70
18	973	Ben Crompton	Ben Cooke	18	SCYC	11	18	11	BFD23	11	RET23	74
19	903	Rosie Sands	Alice Morgan	14	Exe SC	20	16	19	13	17	12	77
20	872	Lucy Heather	Helen Stubbs	17	Wilsonian SC/Downs SC	18	13	21	7	19	BFD23	78
21	753	Matthew Giles	George Franis	15	Weir Wood SC	8	20	22	BFD23	20	RET23	93
22	316	Rory Gharvill	Fiona Stevens	17	Downs SC	13	14	20	RET23	DNS23	DNS23	93